


Locked In (Again)

by localspacelesbian



Category: Diary of a Future President (TV)
Genre: Coming Out, Explicit Language, M/M, Mostly Canon Compliant, at least up until the finale, boys are idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23219239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/localspacelesbian/pseuds/localspacelesbian
Summary: Bobby comes out to his boys, who decide to take it upon themselves to “help” him and Liam work things out.
Relationships: Bobby Cañero-Reed/Liam Carter
Comments: 14
Kudos: 122





	Locked In (Again)

Bobby closed his locker door and saw Danny and Ziggy walking up to him. He tried to hide his disappointment that Liam wasn’t with them, but he didn’t think he was very successful. “So, Liam still avoiding me?”

The two of them shared a look. Ziggy answered. “Yeah sorry, he just still needs a minute.”

Danny nodded. “Have you apologized to him yet?”

“Kind of hard to apologize to someone who won’t talk to me.”

“Oh. Right. Yeah.”

“So… we heard Monyca with a Y dumped you.”

Danny hit Ziggy on the arm. “Dude!”

“What?”

Bobby shook his head. “It’s chill. Actually, I broke up with her.”

The two shared a confused look. “Why would you do that?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, she’s like the coolest girl in our grade. I thought you liked her,” Ziggy added.

Bobby shrugged. “It was more like I felt like I was supposed to like her, you know?”

They shared another look and both shook their heads. “No…”

He sighed. He might as well get this over with before they started trying to get him to date some other girl. They were his boys. They wouldn’t judge him, right? After he had gotten home from his date with Monyca last night, he’d finally admitted it to himself, but he still hadn’t actually said the word out loud. “I’m gay.”

“Oh.”

“Ok, cool.”

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Ziggy asked.

“Yeah, now I kind of feel like we’re jerks for pushing you and Monyca with a Y together so much.”

Bobby shrugged. “I just figured it out like yesterday.”

“Oh. So if you don’t like Monyca with a Y, is there a guy you do like?” Danny asked.

Bobby felt his face warm up slightly. Ziggy looked like he just realized something.  _ Oh no. _ “Ohhhhh.”  _ Oh no _ . “You like Liam, don’t you?”

Bobby looked around the hallway to make sure no one heard him. “Dude, shut the fuck up.”

“Wait, do you?” Danny asked.

Bobby sighed. “Am I really that obvious?”

Ziggy shrugged. “I mean, now that I know you’re gay, kinda. Like, that’s why you got so mad at the dance, isn’t it?”

Bobby looked down, not answering, which in itself was kind of an answer.

“So are you gonna tell him?” Danny asked.

Bobby snapped his head back up. “Why would I do that? He won’t even talk to me, remember? He probably hates me.”

“Dude, he doesn’t hate you. I told you, he just needs a minute.”

“Well, he’s had plenty of minutes.”

“Have you even tried talking to him?”

Bobby shrugged. “No. I thought you said he wanted space.”

“Well, maybe not that much space.”

The bell rang, giving Bobby an opportunity to walk away from them.

All day, he kept thinking about what they said. Maybe he should try to talk to Liam. But if Liam wanted to talk to him, wouldn’t he have talked to him by now? God, when did things get so complicated? He kept typing out texts and then deleting them without sending them. At lunch, Liam wasn’t there. Danny and Ziggy tried convincing him again to talk to him, but he eventually managed to get them to drop it, and they invited him to come play video games at Danny’s house after school. He agreed, even though a part of him was suspicious of the look they shared when he did.

By the time he arrived in Danny’s garage after school, his suspicions were completely forgotten. He walked in to see the two of them on the ground in front of the couch looking through Danny’s games. They looked up when they heard him enter.

“Oh hey, Bobby,” Danny said. “Um, one of the remotes is dead. Can you look in the storage closet for some new batteries?”

He agreed and walked into the closet. It was kind of a mess compared to the last time he’d been in there.  _ Great _ . He sighed and started looking. He heard the someone else come into the closet. Assuming it was Danny, as he started to turn around, he asked, “Hey, where are the- Oh.” It was Liam.

“I didn’t know you were going to be here.”

“Yeah, I didn’t know you were going to be here either.” His brain suddenly screamed, ‘ _ It’s a trap! _ ’ but before he could react, the door slammed closed behind Liam. Just as both of their heads snapped in the direction of the sound, they heard the door lock.

“Hey, what the hell guys?” Liam seemed more confused than mad.

“You two need to talk!” Danny shouted back.

Bobby got up. “This isn’t funny, guys. Let us out!” No response. He banged on the door. “Guys!” Still no response. He hit the door again and cursed before sighing and turning around to lean against it.

“Dude. Chill.”

“I am chill.”

“You’re never chill.”

“I’m always chill.”

“Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”

Bobby finally looked at Liam, who had sat down against the opposite wall.

Liam shrugged. “Looks like we’re gonna be here for a while. Might as well get comfortable.”

Bobby slid down the door and rested his elbows on his knees.

“They weren’t wrong. We should probably talk.”

“Hey, you’re the one who’s been avoiding me.”

Liam nodded slowly. “Ok, I’ll give you that.”

“And even if they’re right, it’s still pretty shitty of them to lock us in a closet.” Why did it have to be a  _ closet? _ They probably thought they were so funny.

Liam shrugged. “Pretty shitty of you to start a fight at the dance.”

Ok, he deserved that. “Pretty shitty of you to bail on our prank.”

“Yeah ok, I’m sorry about that. I guess I didn’t think it’d be such a big deal. You guys could’ve done it without me. You way overreacted.”

“Yeah. I know. I’m sorry.”

“Why’d you do it?”

Bobby looked down, not ready to answer that question.

Liam sighed. “Fine.”

The two of them lapsed into an awkward silence. Since when were silences between the two of them awkward? God, he’d really fucked everything up.

“I heard you and Monyca with a Y broke up.”

Bobby shrugged. “Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“What happened?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Is there anything you  _ do _ want to talk about?”  _ Not really. _ Liam sighed. “You’re making this conversation really difficult.”

“I’m not really a ‘talk about my feelings’ kind of guy.”

Liam nodded. “Right.”

More silence.

“So how was your Spring Break?”

“Pretty boring. I was grounded, and I’m pretty sure my mom and Sam broke up.”

Liam raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Wait what? Why?”

Bobby shrugged. “Well, we haven’t had Sambled Eggs in over a week, and my mom won’t talk about it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s whatever.”

“You know, you do that a lot.”

“Do what?”

“Pretend like things are fine when they aren’t.”

“Hey, I’m not gonna tell my mom who to date.”

“Yeah, but you’re allowed to be upset.”

Bobby shrugged and looked around the room. “Hey, do you think there’s any food in here?”

Liam shrugged, and the two of them got up and started looking for something to eat. They managed to find a box of Capri Sun and a box of Rice Krispie Treats.

Bobby didn’t sit back down as they ate. He was tired of sitting. He was tired of being in this room. He tried to pace, but there wasn’t enough room.

“Why  _ did _ you get so upset at the dance?”

Bobby froze and looked down at Liam.

“Like, I get that you don’t want to talk about it, but that’s not really fair. I’m your best friend, dude. I know you wouldn’t do something like that for no reason, and I kind of feel like I deserve to know what the reason is. It can’t just be about the prank. Danny and Ziggy didn’t care that much. I just don’t get it. Why would you get so upset that I was dancing with Jada?”

And there it was. Liam was right. It wasn’t about the prank. It was about the fact that he had been dancing with someone. Someone who wasn’t him. A girl. The whole time Liam was talking, Bobby’s mind was racing. Liam did deserve to know why he’d hurt him. But Bobby was scared. What if he didn’t want to be his friend anymore? (He couldn’t even entertain the possibility of Liam liking him back.) What if he hated him? The last week and a half of not being able to talk to Liam had been awful. He didn’t want to ruin their friendship. But hadn’t he already done that at the dance?

“Bobby?”

“I was jealous.” The words just kind of came out all at once.

“What?”

“I was jealous,” he repeated, more slowly this time, unable to look Liam in the eye.

Liam stood up, forcing Bobby to look at him. He looked confused. “Why would you be jealous?”

Bobby forced himself not to look away. “Because I like you.” Liam looked surprised, but he didn’t say anything. “I like you so fucking much I don’t know what to do with myself, and it took seeing you with someone else for me to force myself to admit it, and it hurt, like actually physically hurt, and I lashed out at you, and I’m so fucking sorry.” He felt like he was going to cry, but he managed to force himself not to. He hadn’t cried in years. He wasn’t going to start now.

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, not knowing what else to say.

“It’s ok.”

Bobby shook his head. “It’s not ok. You should hate me.”

“I could never hate you.” Bobby felt Liam take his hands in his. He glanced down to confirm that it was really happening. His heart was racing. “I get it.”

“What do you mean?”

Liam tilted his head to the side. “How do you think I felt seeing you with Monyca for all those months?”

Bobby just gave him a confused look, not willing to believe what he was hearing.

“I like you too, dumbass.”

“But… Jada…”

“But Monyca,” Liam shot back with a teasing smile as he shook his head. “I didn’t think I had a chance with you, and she asked me to dance.” He shrugged.

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So, wait. You like me?”

Liam nodded. “Yeah, I already said that.”

“You’re gay?”

“Technically, I’m bi. What about you?”

“I’m so fucking gay, dude. Kissing Monyca was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life.”

“And yet it took you this long to figure it out.”

“I think we already established that I’m an idiot.”

“Yeah. You are.” He squeezed his hands. “But you’re my idiot.”

Bobby chuckled and shook his head. “That was so cheesy.”

Liam laughed, looking down. “Yeah, it was.”

Liam looked back up at him, and Bobby could’ve sworn he was looking at his lips. His heart jumped up to his throat. He started to move one of his hands up to Liam’s cheek. Time seemed to slow down as they leaned toward each other.

Suddenly, the door opened, and they sprung apart. “Hey guys, have you-” Danny looked down at their hands that were still interlocked and then up at their faces that were a combination of shocked and embarrassed. “Um…” He and Ziggy shared a look, and then he closed the door again.

The sound of the door closing snapped Bobby and Liam out of it. They looked at each other and then stepped forward together to open the door again.

Danny and Ziggy turned around to face them, smug looks on their faces. “What? We figured you guys wanted some privacy,” Danny said.

“You guys are idiots,” Bobby said.

Ziggy shrugged. “Our plan worked, didn’t it?” He gestured to the door,  _ the fucking closet _ , with a shit-eating grin. “You guys came out of the closet.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

“I thought you’re days of getting into fights were behind you.”

“Yeah, what happened to all that peace and love shit you said you’re mom’s been lecturing you about all week?” Danny asked.

Bobby looked around the room and then at Liam. “I don’t see my mom around here anywhere. Do you?”

Liam smiled at him. “Nope. Haven’t seen her.”

They looked back at Danny and Ziggy, whose smiles fell. They took one step closer to them, and the two of them took off running.


End file.
